Fatally Yours

Chapter 5

•INDIANA•

Agent Anderson and I spent the rest of the day in my office strategizing our next plan and planning the moves and actions we needed to take for this mission. We took small breaks in between to get something to eat, which we ordered in, and then got back to work.

It was clear that this would be an important mission not only for the FBI team but also for the LAPD, since I was now involved. Thanks to my uncle, a few of my colleagues were selected by him to help work out our plans, while the rest resumed their duties.

"Lee frequents the best restaurant in town every Tuesday at exactly 11 AM," Keith said, slowly pacing around the room with the file case in his hands. "Our first step is to get him to notice you, and for that, you're going to have to go in as someone he would never suspect of doing anything wrong."

He stopped and gave me a quick smile that released butterflies I never knew existed inside my stomach.

"Well, technically, you have, but that's only because you have a fake rap sheet made for you as part of your cover. Take a look at your new profile, Detective."

He pulled out another file from the folders on top of my desk that they had brought in earlier from the FBI headquarters. I took the file from his hand and flipped the cover open.

The first thing that caught my eye was a picture of me clipped on top of the first page. I'd never had my pictures taken this way, where I had to look directly at the camera with a scary expression plastered on my face.

I looked like one of those bullies who terrorize kids as a hobby.

Damn, AI is really getting scary these days. How the hell did they make me look young but older at the same time?

"From now on, you're Nova West," Keith continued, and my eyes wandered to the information below the page, where everything about my undercover identity was listed.

"You're an orphan and have been in the foster system since you were born. At 16, you fell in with the wrong crowd, which ended up with you getting arrested and spending two years in juvie. After that, you committed a few minor felonies and have been in and out of prison ever since."

"So I'm a troublemaker, huh?" I added, and Keith grinned at me.

"Right. Moving on, we've erased all records of your real identity and any other personal information that connects to who you really are from the system and have sealed everything under our security database. No one from the outside can access that information unless they have full authorization from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There's no trace of Indiana Reece out there anymore. If they try to track you down using a photo of you, the only information they'll find is everything in that file about Nova West."

I lifted up the AI-generated picture of me and stared closely at the face. So this is who I'm going to be for the next couple of months, and no one is ever going to know the real person under the mask.

A bit terrifying, but it's pretty cool too. This is one of the biggest cases I've ever worked on, and the fact that I'll be going undercover to pull this off is pretty liberating and feels surreal.

"So basically, I'm a rebel always wanting to catch the attention of the bad guys. How do we get to Lee then?" I asked.

"He'll be at the same restaurant tomorrow at the usual time, probably with a couple of friends if it's a good day. He drives a black Ferrari Roma, and that, Detective, is the car you will be stealing from the restaurant tomorrow in order to get his attention."

"Steal?" I asked in disbelief. "A Ferrari Roma that belongs to one of the most dangerous criminals on earth?"

Keith placed the file down flat on the table and suddenly leaned forward, looming over my head.